John Ireland, an avid hunter, stands in the firehouse where he works in Pueblo, Colo. (David Freid/Digital First Media)

Troy Boggs faces several rites of passage over the next year: high school graduation, starting college and — he hopes — bringing down a buck to help feed his family.

The 18-year-old high school senior from Pueblo, Colo., has lived “in-town” his entire life, but packaged meat that’s been sitting on refrigerated supermarket shelves doesn’t have much of a place on his family’s dinner table.

They’re hunters.

“Runs all the way through the family. It’s awesome,” Boggs said.

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Boggs and his family members are among more than 10 million people who hunt big game in the United States every year, according to the federal Fish and Wildlife Service. There are nearly 270,000 hunters in Colorado alone, out of the state’s population of 5 million.

Though both of Boggs’ parents are city employees who earn decent salaries — his stepdad, John Ireland, is a firefighter, and his mom, Kim Ireland, is a 911 dispatcher — they prefer “an old- fashioned lifestyle” and the taste of venison over ground beef, John Ireland said.

Kim Ireland’s father was a state trooper in southern Colorado who earned a small salary and hunted to supplement the family’s food supply. Her husband was raised on a cattle ranch and taught to shoot as a young boy by his father and grandfather.

“It’s part of our heritage, that’s what we grew up doing,” John Ireland said. “It’s what our ancestors did and we feel like it’s important to pass that tradition and that heritage on to our kids.”

On a recent autumn weekend, Boggs and his stepdad drove a few hours southwest of their home searching for a buck. But after two full days of hunting, the men came back empty handed.

That’s something he learned early on in life, along with how to hold a gun.

And that’s how things should be, John Ireland believes.

When his kids were old enough to handle a firearm — at age 5 or 6 — Ireland taught them to shoot. His biological children are now grown, with his daughter a military wife and his son in the U.S. Air Force. His wife’s children from a previous marriage, Boggs and his adult sister, were raised in the same manner in Ireland’s home since 2001, when the couple married.

“I always kept a gun, unlocked and loaded, in my house. I’d keep it right there by the bed,” John Ireland said. “I taught my kids to respect it and not touch it. They listened.”

Today, everyone in this blended family hunts and everyone shoots. The parents. The sons. The daughters. They keep guns in their house for protection. They use them for hunting. They hone their skills with target shooting.

It’s also the basis for the décor inside their modest split-level home on a curved street in a middle-class neighborhood.

Antlers are mounted on the entryway wall, and a stuffed antelope trophy head keeps watch over the living room. The family’s three freezers are jam-packed with deer meat.

Each set of antlers is an important part of the family history, they said. Each trophy tells a story and brings back a memory. One is a reminder of the time a few years ago when Boggs shot the antelope, his first and only big-game kill.

He was shaking with adrenaline as he steadied his aim and finally took the shot. The bullet hit the animal near its shoulder, killing it instantly. John Ireland helped the boy to clean out the entrails, preserving the heart and liver (because those are good to eat, Boggs said) and then skinned it. The meat helped feed the family that winter.

Boggs’ biological father, Trent Boggs, was so proud of his son that he sent the antelope’s head to a taxidermist and had it mounted.

In this family, though, traditions aren’t only about fathers and sons. When Kim Ireland brought down an elk during a family hunting trip, the men were happy to applaud.

“I was there when she brought down the cow elk, and before that I’d never seen her hunt or shoot. I’d only heard stories about what a good shot she was,” Boggs said. “I think it’s awesome my mom is a hunter. You don’t really meet too many moms who like to hunt and get in there and do the work. It’s great, it’s fantastic.”